life in the backlands...

[Sister Alvear]

There have been lots of creepy creatures to entertain us

“Sister Alvear that chicken you ate had maggots on it…” I looked at Kathryn who had just uttered these words to me and thought well…if the tiny piece that had been on her plate had maggots, I must have ate a bunch of them for I ate a big piece of chicken… Oh well…where I was sitting I could not tell what I was eating anyway…I remembered in the car was a coke so I asked someone to get it and thought…this ought to wash them on down…
We were visiting a family that lived in the middle of nowhere…they had once lived in a farm area in the state of Alagoas but the plantation owner had moved them to the far away state of Maranhao some 6 hours by bus from where our son Arlei lives. He had come with his wife and son and we picked them up and drove on out here in the middle of what was once just jungle land. For over a year the owner has had all kinds of machinery clearing the land and another plantation is being built…
We were not there to see or witness the founding and building of another plantation to burst some rich person’s ego …we were there because of the little ones that had briefly become acquainted with our Jesus right before moving up here. We had promised them we would come and they were so excited we were there. They had been 2 days without any electricity the generator was broke and the electric line from some other plantation nearby had blew down…so needless to say it was hot and stuffy and far from clean…the little lady of the house was so embarrassed because she cooks for the plantation men and all the months supply of meat and fish were going to ruin.

We jumped in and started salting down the fish and meat and hung them on a line in the hot sun and told her that way the meat and fish would not ruin…she looked amazed and said Wow, missionary where did you learn that? I smiled and told her I knew a lot how to preserve things from the hard life we have lived.

We strung up the fish on an old wire we tried to wipe clean along with some meat that was ruining…. Our biggest problem we had to keep an eye on it so the dogs and animals would not find them a hearty supper



Arriving at the second place on our journey…I wondered what they would feed us…It was not long until the table was sat…The first thing that I saw was the eyes of the fish in a watery soup…head, tail and all the rest…the roe (is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries,) Actually the fish tasted ok but I doubt if it was cleaned good…They had gone all the way to the port to get it for us…(such a sacrifice) Anyway poured hot sauce on it and ate away…They were so glad we were there…It had been over a year since I had seen them.

The sweetness of the presence of the Lord in the mist of the deep poverty makes up for any so called hardships we might suffer...seeing new people come to the Lord, seeing new ministers ordained is outweighs any obstacles...


We travel on...more news later....